Just remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs

Sometimes you have to learn a lesson more than once.

This particular lesson I've "learned" approximately 152 times in the last 25 years of life on this planet, but alas my progress has been incremental at best.

Sometimes I look at life as a choose your own adventure novel. True you start on page one, but by page fourteen you are making choices to slay the dragon, to let it run free, or to keep it as a pet and alas your life is forever changed. Sometimes one choice will lead you back to where you would have been if you'd made a different choice; but sometimes the road taken is not a mere shortcut or protracted path with the same outcomes.

This is all well and good when you are the one making the choices. We are not always the ones making our choices. Sometimes choices are made for us, doors open and doors close. I for one get frustrated by the prospect that I am not in control. I don't get what I want just because I throw a tempertantrum (I've tried) or threatened to walk out. Apparently I'm not the princess of the universe.

So here is what I'm grateful for: all the times that life hasn't worked out the way I would have had it work out. I don't know what my life would look like if every one of my wishes had come true. I like my life pretty well right now, and upon reflecting on those times things didn't quite work out the way I wanted them to, well - I'm glad they didn't.

So keep reminding me of that for the 153, 154, 155, 156th times...

And so... "sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers... just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care."